The Shaping of Psychiatry by War
- Type:
Reviews
- Author:
Rees.
Chapman & Hall. Pp. 158. 10s. 6d.
The developments of psychiatry during this war have not been of the nature expected by many people who remember the experiences of the last war. During 1914-18 we saw the virtual emergence of analytical technique which resulted from the vast opportunities ?f application to the very great numbers of war neuroses ^hich resulted from that struggle. We saw the final defeat of the school which attributed functional symptoms especially those of hysteria to gross structural ^Iterations. We saw the improvement of the technique *?r removing hysterical symptoms with at the same time the recognition of the fact that such removal generally, merely unmasked a basic anxiety state which itself required treatment before the patient was cured.
^ the 1939-1945 war there have been few advances in treatment. Hypno- and narco-analysis have been found Useful in shortening treatment, but have not represented any striking advance in therapeutic technique. It has been possible to increase experience of the value and ‘?niitations of shock therapy, and to a much less extent ?f leucotomy, and advances have been made in the n>ore realistic application of occupational therapy, but tne real advance has been in the field of prevention. ?This possibly disappointing progress in therapy has been ?ue to two causes. In the first place a war of movement ls less conducive to chronically insoluble emotional conflicts as is static trench water, and in the second place the success of the preventive measures has undoubtedly Reduced the incidence of battle neuroses of all kinds.
It is with this advance in preventive measures by Personnel selection and what amounts to vocational |nidance that Brigadier Rees is mostly concerned in the Salmon Lectures for 1944 which are here reprinted. It was to the indefatigable persistence and perseverance of Brigadier Rees in face of considerable prejudice and opposition that the great advances in these fields are due and all credit should be given to him and his colleagues who have undoubtedly done a great deal to save the country from the hordes of ” nerve shattered wrecks with whom we had to cope and are still having to pay for. One of the most valuable points which have been made is the prevalence of reactive anxiety in the dullard and undiscovered feeble minded person who is trying to undertake more than he is fit for. The transference of the real dullard to agricultural and land worker units proved very valuable and would have been more successful if uninstructed ” high ups ” in other branches had not interfered with the scheme. The distribution of psychoneurotics to suitable occupations was also very successful, indeed the success was only limited by the difficulty of finding enough suitable jobs. These ideas should be very fertile in peace time and the difficulties should be much less in the more varied range of peace time industry.
The methods of applying vocational guidance to very large numbers of recruits on entry to service are most important of all for the future and must be studied and applied in the interests of both health and national efficiency and we are told quite rightly that we shall need all the health and all the efficiency we can procure if we are to win the peace.
This book therefore, which tells how all this was done and what may be looked for in the future should be studied by every citizen and those who do not yet know Dr Rees as he again is and his writings will soon find out what we who have for so many years valued him so much as a colleague and friend know already that anything he writes is stimulating, full of common sense and easily read and understood. R.G.G.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.